This is the delicious Hardees fried bologna biscuit right before I ate it!!! It may have been a dare, but I was happy to oblige!

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And this is me enjoying the Hardee's fried bologna biscuit!

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Chicago Trip

I had an eventful trip to Chicago the past few days. In my own hope of remembering all of the fun I had, I'm going to document my itinerary:

Friday, 7/10: Made it to town around 5 o'clock. The traffic due to road construction and a car gutted by fire kept me from getting to Des Plaines until 5:45 though. At that point I tried getting hold of Corey, at whose place I was staying, so he could let me in. After trying to call him for a good hour, he finally calls me back when he realized that his phone had not in fact been on vibrate like he thought, but on silent. In the meantime, I went to Target and bought some face wash, a new T-shirt for the next day's pub crawl & a new air mattress, since rumor had it there would be quite a few people crashing at his house and I had forgotten to bring my own.

Once I was settled in at Corey's place, I headed over to Portillo's, which is a Chicago style hot dog place. I got 2 Chicago style dogs with everything and an order of cheese fries. This may sound like a lot of food for me. Well, it is. It literally took the remainder of the night to eat it all.

I forgot to mention the job Corey gave me upon my arrival. He had WAY too much beer just sitting in his fridge, so my job was to drink it. Well, ok, Corey, if I must.... ;-)

Anyway, later on Corey's brother, Chris arrives & it turns out he's the only one staying that night. He and I ended up drinking beer and watching season 1 of That 70's Show on DVD. We really put a dent in that beer!

Of course, we were interrupted by the 5 fire trucks outside of Corey's building.....but apparently this happens all the time.

Saturday, 7/11: The big pub crawl day! This year's theme: Super Heroes & Villans. Location: Chicago, Bucktown neighborhood.
Bar itinerary:
Noon- The Web
1 pm- Charleston
2 pm- The Map Room
3 pm- Cleos Armitage
4 pm- Ed & Jeans (note: this place didn't have a phone, so the organizer couldn't call & let them know we were coming. Another side effect was that they weren't open until 6. Hence, back to Cleos!)
5 pm- 6 Degrees
6 pm- Lotties Pub
7 pm- Lemming's

Needless to say, after an all day drinking marathon, we were ready to chill out. Even though we took the train down to the pub crawl neighborhood, my friend Jessie's mom was nice enough to drive us back to Corey's place.

Once getting back to Corey's, we all chilled out for a bit & I changed into my "Call of Duty" PJ pants. Corey put on an MJ CD and I began to show off my MJ dancing skills (or lack thereof) :)
I learned the next day that it was rather humorous.

We then decided we were going to Leona's restaurant, which is around the corner from Corey's place. Yes, I wore my CoD pants :) Luckily we sat outside on the patio. It was a gorgeous evening! I got a huge plate of macaroni & cheese lasagna. Who knew there was something so good in the world! My excitement was enhanced when I realized that I couldn't possibly eat the whole thing that night, which meant LEFTOVERS for the morning!

We then went back & everyone either went back to where they were staying or went to sleep.

Sunday, 7/12: Got up pretty early. Jessie, Chris & her mom left pretty early as Jessie had to be back in St. Louis by 4 in order to volunteer for All-Star game events.

I ate my leftover mac n cheese lasagna then met up with my friend, Jen. I visited with her and her 19 month old daughter.

Later that night we went to visit my friend Rhonda and her husband. Rhonda and I worked together at SAA when I lived in Chicago. Going to her house is always full of great stories, good beer, wine & great food. We also drove Corey's brand new, 2010 Chevy Camaro. WOW! What a car! It was beautiful and powerful & I am utterly jealous!

Monday, 7/13: Pretty low key day. Slept in just a smidge & then went up to the "new & improved" SAA. The new building has been there for 2 years I believe, but I had yet to see the inside of the building having never been in town during the week. It was pretty amazing, really. When I worked there, classrooms were made out of just about any space that would even somewhat suffice. The "gym" and "stage" were really a multipurpose room with pillars in the middle & some classrooms didn't even have real walls. Well, all of that is a recent memory.

My friend Phyllis, who had been the secretary when I worked there and now works in the business office, gave me a tour. For lunch, we went to Portillo's (again :)) This time I only got 1 hot dog! (and cheese fries....)

Later, I went back to Target & returned the air mattress that I had bought on Friday as the "whole lotta" people staying at his place turned out to be false & I never needed it. I got Corey a host gift. The Target dollar aisle had a bunch of Coca-Cola items (coasters, pencils, magnets, etc.), which we both really like, so I got him a sampler of these things.

For dinner that night, we got a required dose of Giordano's pizza! Stuffed pepperoni & green olives! Mmmmm. And of course, Corey & John required me to take the leftovers with me! Darn :-)

Jen came to Corey's later on to visit & we watched some TV and chatted.

Tuesday, 7/14: Last day.....I basically packed up & headed to my friend Shelley's. Shelley and I became friends because I taught her older son at SAA and spent a week for 2 summers housesitting at their old house in Rogers Park. She and I went to a great breakfast/lunch place called Georgie V's. I got a delicious spinach & feta omelette while we chatted about life & what not.

I then began my trek home in order to get back in time for the All-Star Game.

Finis

Lazy Memorial Day

It's 1 pm and we are still laying in bed. It is one of those rainy weekdays that you would normally want to stay home from work, but today we really get to do that! So far we've watched some 90210 episodes, some HGTV and Food Network. Gene looked at houses online, I scanned the obituaries for my friend Carrie's grandma and bought some discounted restaurant gift certificates. It is amazing how productive one can be simply due to a laptop and wireless internet. How did we ever live without it??

However, now we just lost the satellite signal due to the rain, so now we're having to watch some DVR'd Judge Judy episodes. I'm thinking I might watch some old 30 Rocks on Netflix here pretty soon.

Not much else has been going on lately. For a holiday weekend, we've done very little. A friend from work had a bbq last night so we went to that, but otherwise we've spent the weekend relaxing at home. I'm not always opposed to that. I like spending time alone.

I'd like to go see the stingrays at the zoo. I've heard they've been messing with people, like making splashes with their fins. Most people have been annoyed by it, I've heard, but I think it's funny.

That's all for now folks. I need to get back to my busy day!

Long week

I received a call rather early on Mother's Day from my mother. My grandpa finally passed away. It was one of those things that we all knew was coming soon, but never really knew on what day to expect the call. I am comforted in the fact that he went to bed that night and that was it. He isn't hurting any longer and he is with my grandma again. I maintain that death is always harder on those that are left behind.
Anyhow, the last week was spent with relatives eating and drinking and reminiscing. I spoke at his funeral. It was difficult, but everyone seemed to appreciate it. I feel glad that I did it because it helped me grieve and say what I felt about him.
Sometimes I feel silly writing this blog. I'm not sure why anyone would be interested in reading about my life. I will try to make it interesting. :-)

Thankfulness

Ticket is getting spayed tomorrow. Good times. At least she'll be groggy & confused during Cards opening game & I'll be able to watch it without interruption! LOL But it is one more step towards her very important job. She, unfortunately, will not be a mother. I say that because I was having an instant messenger conversation with my husband the other day & he mentioned that we needed to get her spayed soon, though "she'd like to have puppies". I said, "she would?" And he responded, "I guess." I thought it funny. Later I asked him if they had talked about it! How do we ever know what a dog truly wants? Unless, of course, I am an animal psychic. Surprisingly, though, I am not. Oh, well.

I called this post thankfulness because I've been thinking lately about how thankful I am. I've suffered from depression for many years. Actually many more than I'm willing to admit and in that time I've spent a lot of time feeling sorry for myself and having a very negative attidute. Recently, through the help of some new medication and wonderful friends, I've started to emerge from that long term funk from which I've suffered. I've been very lucky in my life, despite my shortcomings and perceptions. I think back throughout my life and think back to so many people I've known who have made an impact in my life. I know how cheesy this must sound, but I've come a long way to be at this point.

Last night I went to an adult Easter Egg hunt. I won $100. I never win anything. It was awesome. I also won a kick-ass Budweiser hat and some Harrah's sunglasses. And some candy and other crap. It rules.

It is almost 11 and I need to get up early tomorrow to take Ticket to the vet. Don't have much else to say right now anyway....

Ticket to ride

So there's a new addition in our household. A few months ago, my husband and I applied to be a puppy raiser for Support Dogs Inc. They are an organization that trains and provides support dogs to disabled folks who could really use a good companion/ assistant. Puppy raisers take in the dog, provide their day-to-day and veterinary care, take them to weekly class and work with them on basic training.
We finally got a call last Wednesday telling us that they had a puppy ready, thus our journey began. We picked up our 7 month old black labrador, Ticket, that Friday and there hasn't been a dull moment since. She's a very sweet girl with a lot of energy. We've had some issues with the potty training so far, which kind of surprised me considering her age, but we are getting through it. Almot 2 whole days have gone by without an accident & I'm hoping it continues. She's very smart so she's learning more all the time. My only wish, though, is that I didn't love her so much since eventually we're going to have to give her back to the organization and then to her client. Even though I know we're doing good, the day she leaves will be a very hard day for me as I've already fallen in love with her.
There are 2 funny things she's done so far: yesterday morning she crawled under our bed. Not only did she just crawl under it, but she continued to scoot around once she got under there as if she was looking for something. It was adorable.
The other thing is that she has learned to open the bathroom door. Not a huge deal, but when you're trying to have a little privacy in there, it is a little inconvenient. :-)
All things considered, I look forward to watching her grow and learn until the day where she ulitmately becomes a wonderful partner for someone who truly needs her.